What do you know about Russia? Just that they were "the first ones to reach the moon or that they had greats in history such as Lenin?
Well, it time to update that knowledge. Russia has a lot to boast of even in the IT sector. Russia has more than 2,500 firms centered mainly around Moscow and St. Petersburgh, they have around 200,000 programmes with University degrees, 11 million computers, more than 8 million internet users and their revenue from IT sector is estimated to be around $3.9 billion for 2002.
A six-member delegation has descended on the city to participate in Bangalore IT.СОМ 2002 to find out what Indian firms can offer them. Interestingly, the delegation also comprises a representative from RosBusinessConsuiting (RBC), which has the distinction of being the first and only public IT company to be listed in the Russian stock exchanges.
Established in 1992, RBC has more than 500 specialists, of which nearly 200 are working in IT-related areas. The company has subsidiaries in US, Netherlands and Switzerland. During 2002, the company's target was to achieve a revenue of $27 miilion.
Talking to this newspaper, here on Sunday, analyst and representative of RBC International Tatyana Butsyk said, "during 2003, our Government is planning to improve business and the investment environment by supporting IT at all levels. We're also introducing reforms in finance, tax, structural and legal sectors."
In Russia, IT has been growing at 18 per cent and its share in the GDP is 1 per cent as against 5 per cent in Western countries. The Internet users rate is increasing and it is expected to touch 26 million by 2010.
"In the IT sector, 55 per cent of the revenue conies from hardware, 16 per cent from software, 23 per cent from systems integration and 6 per cent from e-commerce. Revenue from the software sector is $600 to $800 million and we expect it to grow by 25 per cent. We use the off-shore model for growth, which currently fetches us $120 to $150 million and we expect to post a 50 per cent growth by 2003," she said.
According to her, Russia faces challenges from Indian techies when they go out for offshore development. They are also aware about Indian names like Ramco, Infosys, Wipro and Satyam. "Even though, we offer the best competitive price in Europe, we are on par with India. However, time zone works to our advantage," she said.
The delegation came to know about the Bangalore IT.СОМ 2002 through a private party and decide to learn more about it.
They are yet to make their presence felt in China.
